So, let’s sort this out – President Obama makes an excellent choice of Chuck Hagel for secretary of defense, reaching across the aisle to nominate a moderate Republican who demonstrated his maverick ways during 12 years in the Senate.

The reaction? The far left and the far right somehow agree that Hagel is bad news.

At the same time, some liberals have jumped to Hagel’s defense, eager to stir the pot in this unfolding GOP intra-party feud. Mostly, they see the absurdity of a Democratic president extending a nomination to a Republican and drawing the ire of GOP “neocons” who are blocking the door – and they want to rub the Republican Party’s nose in it.

But what’s the reaction outside of the nuthouse that our national capitol has become?